“Women & Mastroianni”‏

“Woman is the sun, an extraordinary creature, one that makes the imagination gallop”. Marcello Mastroianni

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, (Italian pronunciation: [marˈtʃɛllo mastroˈjanni]; 28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor. His prominent films include La Dolce Vita; 8½; La Notte; Divorce, Italian Style; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian-Style; A Special Day; City of Women; Henry IV; Dark Eyes; and Stanno tutti bene. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.

“Theater actors like to change character roles. They don’t like to always do the same thing”. Marcello Mastroianni

Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, and grew up in Turin and Rome. He was the son of Ida (née Irolle) and Ottone Mastroianni, who ran a carpentry shop,and the nephew of the Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni (1910–1998).

“When I was young, life seemed long and endless to me”. As quoted in “Latin Lover”? No? How About Lover Of Life?” in The New York Times (13 August 1999), p. 116

During World War II, after the division into Axis and Allied Italy, he was interned in a loosely guarded German prison camp, from which he escaped to hide in Venice.

Mastroianni made his onscreen debut as an uncredited extra in Marionette (1939) when he was fourteen, and his first big role was in Atto d’accusa (1951). Within a decade he became a major international celebrity, starring in Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958); and in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vitta

“Each year we look for a big name that is attractive to the public and pleasant for the girls”. Marcello Mastroianni

Stay As You Are (1978) with Nastassja Kinski; Fellini’s City of Women (1980) and Ginger and Fred (1986); Marco Bellocchio’s Henry IV (1984); Nikita Mikhalkov’s Dark Eyes (1987); Giuseppe Tornatore’s Everybody’s Fine (1990); Used People (1992) with Shirley MacLaine; and Agnès Varda’s One Hundred and One Nights (1995).

“To be a Latin Lover a man, above all, has to be a great fucker — he has to be infallible and I’m not that. I often foul it up”. ( In 1977, to Dick Cavett while accompanied by Sophia Loren; quoted by French Film Stars Database, which sources it to his obituary in The Guardian)

Mastroianni married actress Flora Carabella (1926–1999) in 1950. They had one child together, Barbara (born 1952), and eventually separated because of his affairs with other women. Mastroianni’s first serious relationship after the separation was with Faye Dunaway, his co-star in A Place for Lovers (1968). Dunaway wanted to marry and have children, but Mastroianni, a Catholic, refused to divorce Carabella. In 1971, after three years of waiting for Mastroianni to change his mind, Dunaway left him.

Mastroianni had a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, with actress Catherine Deneuve, his partner for four years in the 1970s. During that time, the couple made four movies together: It Only Happens to Others (1971), La cagna (1972), A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973) and Don’t Touch the White Woman! (1974).

“Woman is also an element of conflict”. Marcello Mastroianni

“With whom do you argue? With a woman, of course. Not with a friend, because he accepted all your defects the moment he found you. Besides, woman is mother-have we forgotten?” Marcello Mastroianni

According to People magazine, Mastroianni’s other lovers included actresses Lauren Hutton, Ursula Andress, Anouk Aimee and Claudia Cardinale.

Around 1976, he became involved with Anna Maria Tatò, an author and filmmaker, although they did not form an exclusive relationship until the early 1980s. They remained together until his death.